Silt Circle
The static sizzled on the ship’s radio, the only lifeline between it and the deepest diving maned submersible beneath it. They had chosen this part of the Abyssal Plain seemingly at random, as far as the ship’s captain could tell. A desert under the sea...
And damn near the whole science team, and maybe more of the crew than was safe, were listening intently, watching the equally static-filled video.
“...doctor Carver, repeat. Did you say...”
“--t’s like a giant...crop circle, right there in the silt! The curves of the circle is incredibly regular! The rising and falling features are...well I haven’t done the full circle, but they seem perfectly even as well! This is unprecedented! This is...”
On the screen the static lessened intermittently, giving them only glimpses of what the submersible was seeing. The circle on the screen did indeed seem unusually regular, the path of the curve of it smooth and undented by debris or imperfections.
it was the most unnatural thing the captain had ever seen.
It was just wrong.
“Wait” the doctor whispered distractedly “turn into the circle, right there, do you see that?”
The camera turned towards the inner side of the circle, the light blocked by rising and falling hills of long-settled silt. These rising and falling features were also regular, almost geometric. It was like looking at a deliberately designed mountain range stretching beyond their feeble floodlights’ reach...
The camera zoomed in.
“No, back up, doN’T DISTURB THE--”
The submersible’s thrust made the silt rise, and everyone inhaled sharply. The waters in the Abyssal Plain moved so little and so slowly that it was estimated that the layers of tiny debris and silt could very well have remained undisturbed for years and years. Shaking it up now felt almost...sacrilegious.
And beneath a thin, dusty layer, were glassy reflections.
What?
“What...” the sizzling static voices echoed, “what...is that...glass?”
Everyone crowded around the screen, but said nothing.
The captain’s brain was in overdrive despite his silence and stillness.
That, he thought with disbelief, looks like volcanic glass.
Smooth, black, flawlessly reflective. No scratches, no dents or chipping.
Again, too perfect.
Wrong.
“Uuuuuhhh, captain?” the ensign on radar called out to him from a different radio, “we’re getting a signal that doesn’t make any sense--”
The captain had had enough, his stomach sinking and heart racing as he radioed the dive team suddenly: “Carver, Cress, get back topside now.”
“What?! But this is--” Carver objected.
“Cress, that’s an order. Do it now!”
DWONG!
The video cut out, the radio screeched before also falling silent, and the whole ship rocked from what felt like and unending impact and shaking, shaking, everyone tumbling!--
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duh-duh-DUUUUUHHHHH!!!
Inspired by these beauties:
With the artist pictured here at the bottom left! A small puffer fish trying to impress a lady. The things we do for love!
Here’s one with a diver and the puffer fish in the middle for scale:
So of course, when you have a wild imagination like mine...extrapolating to the extreme is easy! Maybe the ship will get lucky and there WON’T be an eldritch monstrosity coming for them because they disturbed its art piece XD
Maybe.
Anyway, toodles!